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Race is on for lunar air prize

Want &dollar;250,000? Just squeeze some oxygen out of moon dirt and let NASA know how you did it.

On 19 May, NASA announced the Moon Regolith Oxygen challenge. The cash goes to the first team to extract at least 5 kilograms of breathable oxygen from simulated lunar dirt, aka volcanic dust. The extractor must weigh less than 25 kilograms and the closing date is 1 June 2008. “The use of resources on other worlds is a key element of the Vision for Space Exploration,” says Craig Steidle, NASA’s associate administrator for the exploration systems mission directorate. “This challenge will …